5. Tentative - Short position statements (75 words) to five questions each week (not full debate questions)

6. Rebuttals to the other candidate responses to the four responses(RECOMMENDATION - REBUTTALS will be mandatory even if the candidate says "No further comment." to remain in the debate.

7. Closing Statement

The citizen may produce:

1. Suggested questions

2. Comment and discuss debate on MN-POLITICS-DISCUSS

3. Other ideas - possible citizen panel commentary on candidate responses and other ideas being developed by Tim Erickson (Be ready to decide on these options this Thursday.)

As you can see the devil is in the details and full execution of all these
important steps. The key is to remember that this debate is an important
contribution to Minnesota's democracy and no body does it better anywhere
in the world! Go team go!

weekday. Read and participate on your own time at
your home, work, school or library.

Where: On the Internet! Via E-mail and on the Web.

Join the E-Debate 98 audience on E-MAIL by
subscribing to the MN-FORUM e-mail list. Send an
e-mail message to:

majordomo@mr.net

Leave the subject line blank. In the message body
write:
subscribe mn-forum

* Join MN-FORUM right now and encourage others to come
* along. You will receive only the moderated events on
* the "e-debate stage" as well as important announcements
* about other exciting citizen-to-citizen interaction
* opportunities.

Once the E-Debate starts on Monday, February 9, it
will be fully accessible on the web at:

If you plan to be a web-only participant, please
consider joining Minnesota E-Democracy's one-way
announcement list (we don't send more than four
messages a month). Send a message to:

majordomo@mr.net

Leave the subject line blank. In the message body
write:
subscribe mn-democracy

About
the
Host: Minnesota E-Democracy is a non-partisan, non-profit,

citizen-based project, whose mission is to improve
participation in democracy in Minnesota through
the use of information networks.

Minnesota E-Democracy would like to thank the
growing list of E-Democracy 98 Partners and
MRNet in particular for their technical
assistance with the E-Debate. Visit the extensive
list of E-Democracy 98 partners on the web.

>>--Please Forward--> >>--Please Forward-->

Send this to the friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors
who you think would be interested. As citizens, this is
our first major opportunity to hear from and learn about
the candidates as well as to openly discuss the issues
of this election and who will lead Minnesota as Governor
into the next century.

Welcome to E-Democracy's first debate of the 1998 gubernatorial race.
Thank you all for participating this year. The fact that we have all of
the announced candidates participating so early in the race greatly
strengthens our debate and will enrich the discussions that will flow from
it. To me, this is the democratic process at its finest and I applaud you
for participating.

I hope you will find these questions to be both broad and balanced. Our
aim in crafting them was to allow you to share your own proposals with the
public. However, if past debates are an indicator, I would stress that
you focus on your own ideas in your answers and not attempt to preempt
other candidates' arguments. There is a rebuttal for just this reason.

MINNESOTA

E-DEMOCRACY 98

FIRST

GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE

WEEK 1

A. Monday's question

To be answered by 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 8.

When responding, please include a brief bio of the candidate. The bios

will be included just before the debate questions to introduce candidates
to the public.

1. Many alternatives to the existing education system have been

proposed; including charter schools, vouchers and private sector
involvement. Do you favor any of these approaches, or do you have
specific proposals to strengthen the current system?

B. Tuesday's rebuttal

To be posted by 8 p.m. on Monday February 9.

C. Wednesday's question

To be answered by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, February 10.

2. Overall, Minnesota's economy is the strongest it has been in

years. On the agenda are issues such as living wages, labor shortages,
welfare-to-work, and the changing economy in Greater Minnesota. What do
you feel the most pressing challenges will be? How will you address them?

D. Thursday's rebuttal

To be posted by 8 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11.

F. Friday's question

To be answered by 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 12.

3. To what extent do you intend to support investment in

maintaining Minnesota's highway system and expanding its mass transit
system given the age of the state's highway system, population and
business growth, and the mass transit needs of an aging and dispersed
population?

G. Saturday's rebuttal

To be posted by 8 p.m. on Friday, February 13.

On Sunday, the Media Panels' comments will be posted.

Friday, February 13, you will receive the final three questions for the
week of the 16th.

Please email all answers and rebuttals to me at both rickb@mr.net and
mn-forum@mr.net/. This will enable E-Democracy to have a backup copy of
your emails in case of any problems.

If you have ANY questions or problems DO NOT hesitate to call me at home
at 827-6194.

This year's debate is the most exciting we have ever put on. All the
declared Gubernatorial candidates from established political parties are
participating. With four political parties, and twelve candidates
represented this year's Governor's race so far, this looks to be one of
the most exciting elections in the country.

Minnesota E-Democracy is a non-partisan, citizen-based organization. We
are all volunteers.

This introductory email will introduce you to Mn-Forum and the debate
candidates themselves.

This moderated list will bring all the Minnesota candidates for Governor
right into your email box. Each day, from February 9 to February 22,
members of Mn-Forum will receive email messages containing the 12
candidates responses to six questions, their rebuttals and weekly comments
from the E-Democracy Media Panel.

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the candidates will respond to one
question from E-Democracy. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays the
candidates will be allowed brief rebuttals. On Sundays, the Media Panel
will analyze the debate and offer their comments.

In all, you should expect twelve messages a day from this list, with
only six messages on Sundays.

To sign up to receive the debate via email, send a message to:
majordomo@mr.net in the body of your message just type:
subscribe mn-forum

If you are unable to participate via email, or you are need to catch up,
the entire debate is archived on the E-Democracy website from:
http://www.e-democracy.org/1998

This year's debate will include twelve candidates. Each candidate has
provided us with a brief biography of themselves.

Welcome to E-Democracy 98's final gubernatorial debate.
We are very fortunate to have all eight of the registered
candidates for governor of Minnesota participating in our
online debate. This may be the only opportunity you will get to
hear from all the candidates on "stage" together. I would like to
thank the candidates, their parties, and their campaigns for
taking the time to participate in this debate.

I would also like to thank the volunteers of E-Democracy.
E-Democracy is a non-partisan, citizen-based effort. This
debate is the product of the work of all volunteers, including
Aaron Osterby, Steve Clift, and David Erickson.

This gubernatorial debate will be held the week of October 5,
and the week of October 19. There will be a one week break
separating the two weeks of the debate to give candidate time to
respond to our questions.

As a member of MN-Forum you will be receiving the full text of
the debate. Today, you will be receiving an introductory
statement from each of the candidates. Each candidate's
response will be emailed to you individually. Each of the
candidates' responses to the first short answer question will
also be emailed to you today. To limit the number of emails
you will receive, we will group all the candidates into one email
for the short answer questions.

In all, there will be ten short answer questions. One for each
day of the debate, Monday through Friday. There will be no
rebuttals on short answer questions. Each will be emailed to
you including the responses of all the candidates.

There will also be four long answer questions. The first will be
posted to you on Tuesday morning (October 6). Each
candidates' response will be emailed to you separately. The
responses to the first long answer question will be followed on
Wednesday (Oct 7) by rebuttals on that topic from each
candidate. There will be two long answer questions and
rebuttals each week of the debate.

There will also be one day of finishing remarks by each of the
candidates on Friday, October 23.

Each day you should expect one email for each of the
candidates, and ninth email containing all of the candidates'
responses to that day's short answer question. There will be
fewer emails sent to you if candidates do not respond to all the
questions.

There will be no posting of an introduction or response to the
first short answer question today from the Coleman, McCloney,
or Wright campaigns. Their responses were not received, but
they have all agree to participate in the debate. If you wish to
see their responses when they are sent to us, they will be
available on the E-Democracy web site.

To sign up to receive the debate via email, send a message
to: majordomo@mr.net in the body of your message just
type: subscribe mn-forum

If you are unable to participate via email, or you are need to
catch up, the entire debate is archived on the E-Democracy
web site from: http://www.e-democracy.org/1998

My name is Rick Birmingham. I am the Coordinator of E-Democracy 1998. I
am writing to you to thank you for your participation in E-Democracy's
gubernatorial debate. The on-line gubernatorial debate will be the first
and third weeks of October, 1998. This year, we are boasting the
participation of at least six of the eight gubernatorial candidates. Fancy
Ray McClooney and Norm Coleman have not been available, or have not yet
decided whether or not they will be particpating.

E-Democracy is a non-partisan, all volunteer effort to bring democracy to
the public in a free, open, format. Our web site is at:
WWW.E-DEMOCRACY.ORG/. At that site you will find links to candidate's web
pages, links to other web sites that carry useful information for voters,
and an archive of our online debates over the past several gubernatorial
elections. Our last debate was in February, before the caucuses, where we
boast the participation of all of the candidates (in all the parties) that
had announced by the start of our debate.

E-Democracy's online debates offer campaigns three significant benefits to
campaigns. Our online debate format puts all the gubernatorial candidates
on the same Internet stage at the same time, which is an opportunity for a
diversity of voices to be heard. E-Democracy's debates also go out in a
format that is conducive to reflective thought by citizens on the content
of the debate. Rather than being limited to sound bites and rhetoric,
our format shows interaction between the candidates through the written
word and allows readers to take an active role in the discussion of issues
by going to MN-Politics and MPLS-ISSUES, our online discussion lists.
Citizens will be able to access this information free on the web, or
actually, most people will sign up to receive our debate in their e-mail
inbox each day of the debate. Followers of the debate will be able to
select the candidates they which to hear from, and the questions they wish
to read the responses from, simply by opening their mail or deleting it.

Participating candidates will be responsible for responding to seven
questions each week of the debate (5 short and 2 long), a short written
introduction, a closing statement, and finally there will be four
rebuttals. There will be at least five days (Tuesday to Saturday) for
each campaign to prepare all their responses to our questions, except the
rebuttals, which will have to be answered the day the long questions are
posted (October 6, 8, 19, 21).

This year the debate will be similar, but not identical, to our last
debate in February. This year the debate will run from October 5 to
October 9, then will take a week off, and will return from October 19 to
October 23. The week off was requested by campaigns to enable their staff
to work on responses more thoughtfully.

There will be ten short answer questions in the debate. Five will be
delivered to participating campaigns on the Tuesday before each week of
debate, September 29, and October 13. That will give campaigns nearly a
week to come up with 300 word responses, which will be delivered to
E-Democracy by 9 p.m. on the following Sunday, October 4 &18. E-Democracy
volunteers will post those debate responses to our readers (who can sign
up to receive the debate daily on our web site) and on our web site by 9
a.m. Monday morning, October 5 &19. There will NOT be any rebuttal to the
short answer questions.

There will also be four long answer questions, and an introduction and
closing remarks in the debate. Two long answer questions will be
delivered to the participating campaigns on the Tuesday before each week
of debate, September 29, and October 13. In addition, to the long answer
questions, campaigns will be responsible for coming up with an
introductory essay, and closing statements. Each of the long answer
questions, the introduction, and the closing remarks must be less than 500
words. There will be a 300 word rebuttal to each of the long answer
questions, but there will NOT be a rebuttal to the opening and closing
statements. Each of these longer essays will take up one day of the
debate.

I have broken the calendar of events down into two plans. Plan 1 is for
the campaign that may wish to follow the debate directly and send in
responses to questions on the day of each deadline. Plan 2 is simpler and
demonstrates how a campaign can send in as much of their material as soon
as possible in order to have as few days as possible where work will be
required of them. Plan 2 will give campaigns 4 days during the debate in
which it will require campaigns to be active in reading other candidates
responses to questions and send in rebuttals. All the remaining work can
be done in advance.

E-Democracy volunteers will give the first 5 short answer questions, and
the first two long answer questions to campaigns on Tuesday, September 29.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send us (via email to rickb@mr.net)
responses to the first five short answer questions (300 words) and their
introductory statement (500 words) by 9 p.m. on Sunday, October 4.

E-Democracy volunteers will post the first 5 short answer questions,
candidate responses, and the introductory essay by 9 a.m. on October 5.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will respond to the first long answer
question on October 5 by 9 p.m. to be posted by E-Democracy volunteers the
next day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send in a rebuttal (300 words) to
their opponents' responses to the first long answer question on Tuesday,
October 6. E-Democracy volunteers will post the rebuttal by 9 a.m. the
next day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will respond to the second long answer
question (500 words), by 9 p.m. Wednesday, October 7. E-Democracy
volunteers will post the responses by 9 a.m. the next day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send in a rebuttal (300 words) to
their opponents' responses to the second long answer question by 9 p.m.,
October 8. E-Democracy volunteers will post the rebuttal by 9 a.m. the
next day.

That will end the first week of debate.

The second week of debate will follow the same format.

E-Democracy volunteers will get the second group of five short answer
questions and the second group of two long answer questions to the
campaigns on Tuesday, October 13.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send responds the second group of five
short answer questions (300 words each), and a response to the third long
answer question (500 words) to E-Democracy by 9 p.m. Sunday, October 18.
E-Democracy volunteers will post the responses by 9 a.m. the next day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send in their rebuttal to their
opponents' responses to the third long answer question (300 words) by 9
p.m., Monday, October 19. . E-Democracy volunteers will post the
responses by 9 a.m. the next day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send in their answers to the fourth
(and final) long answer question (500 words) by 9 p.m., Tuesday, October
20. E-Democracy volunteers will post the responses by 9 a.m. the next
day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send in their rebuttal to their
opponents' responses to the fourth long answer question (300 words) by 9
p.m., Wednesday, October 21. E-Democracy volunteers will post the
responses by 9 a.m. the next day.

CANDIDATES and their campaigns will send their closing statement (500
words) by 9 p.m., Thursday, October 22. . E-Democracy volunteers will
post the responses by 9 a.m. the next day.

Plan 2

That is a day by day breakdown, if you want to make it simple, here is
what you should send us and when:

To shorten things, just email us the answers to the first 5 short answer
questions, your introduction, and the responses to the first two long
answer questions by 9p.m. Sunday, October 4. Then, for the second week of
the debate do the same thing. Just send us your responses to the second
group of five short answer questions, your closing statements, and your
responses to our second group of two long answer questions, by 9 p.m.
Sunday, October 18.

If you send us all of that, then you only need to be active on the four
days that we post all the candidates responses to the long answer
questions. On the days we post responses to the long answer questions,
you will have to read all the candidates responses during the day and
prepare a rebuttal to send to us by 9 p.m. that evening. The days you
will have to read the candidates responses and send us rebuttals will be:

Week 1
Tuesday, October 6 and Thursday, October 8

Week 2
Monday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 21

Please feel free to choose whichever plan works better for your
campaign. However, I must remind you that the 9 p.m. deadline is hard and
fast in order to be fair to all participants. Messages received after 9
p.m. will not be posted until after the conclusion of the debate, and they
will not be emailed directly to those on the E-Democracy Debate E-Mail
list.

If you are interested in receiving the debate in your email box, rather
than having to visit it on the web, you can sign up to receive it by
visiting WWW.E-DEMOCRACY.ORG/.